that my Memory has been lately refreshed by seeing some of these ingenious Gentlemen ply in the open Streets, one of which I saw receive so suitable a Reward of his Labours, that tho’ I know you are no Friend to Story-telling, yet I must beg leave to trouble you with this at large.

’About a fortnight since, as I was diverting my self with a pennyworth of Walnuts at the Temple-Gate, a lively young Fellow in a Fustian Jacket shot by me, beckon’d a Coach, and told the Coachman he wanted to go as far as Chelsey:  They agreed upon the Price, and this young Gentleman mounts the Coach-box; the Fellow staring at him, desir’d to know if he should not drive till they were out of Town?  No, no, replied he:  He was then going to climb up to him, but received another Check, and was then ordered to get into the Coach, or behind it, for that he wanted no Instructors; but be sure you Dog you, says he, don’t you bilk me.  The Fellow thereupon surrender’d his Whip, scratch’d his Head, and crept into the Coach.  Having my self occasion to go into the Strand about the same Time, we started both together; but the Street being very full of Coaches, and he not so able a Coachman as perhaps he imagined himself, I had soon got a little Way before him; often, however, having the curiosity to cast my Eye back upon him, to observe how he behaved himself in this high Station; which he did with great Composure till he came to the Pass, which is a Military Term the Brothers of the Whip have given the Strait at St. Clement’s Church:  when he was arrived near this Place, where are always Coaches in waiting, the Coachmen began to suck up the Muscles of their Cheeks, and to tip the Wink upon each other, as if they had some Roguery in their Heads, which I was immediately convinced of; for he no sooner came within Reach, but the first of them with his Whip took the exact Dimension of his Shoulders, which he very ingeniously call’d Endorsing; and indeed I must say, that every one of them took due Care to endorse him as he came thro’ their Hands.  He seem’d at first a little uneasy under the Operation, and was going in all haste to take the Numbers of their Coaches; but at length by the Mediation of the worthy Gentleman in the Coach, his Wrath was asswaged, and he prevail’d upon to pursue his Journey; tho’ indeed I thought they had clapt such a Spoke in his Wheel, as had disabled him from being a Coachman for that Day at least:  For I am only mistaken, Mr. SPEC. if some of these Endorsements were not wrote in so strong a Hand, that they are still legible.  Upon my enquiring the Reason of this unusual Salutation, they told me, that it was a Custom among them, whenever they saw a Brother tottering or unstable in his Post, to lend him a hand in order to settle him again therein:  For my part I thought their Allegations but reasonable, and so march’d off.  Besides our Coachmen, we abound in divers other Sorts of ingenious robust Youth, who, I hope, will not take